MONTREAL – Joe Rogan might have said it best: “Are you kidding me? Are you kidding me?”

Johny Hendricks set out to prove he’s the top contender for the welterweight belt, and he did it with major authority.

With one shotgun blast of a straight left to the chin, Hendricks dropped Martin Kampmann for a 46-second knockout win.

The welterweight bout was the co-main event of Saturday’s UFC 154 event at Bell Centre in Montreal. It aired on pay-per-view following prelims on FX and Facebook.

As has become customary with Hendricks, it didn’t take long for “Bigg Rigg.” For the second time in three fights, he finished an opponent with a first-round, one-punch knockout. Against Kampmann, Hendricks set up his finishing punch with a right hook that led straight into the left.

Kampmann immediately fell straight back, and a follow-up punch from Hendricks was academic and came faster than the referee could get in to wave things off.

Eleven months ago, Hendricks finished former welterweight title challenger Jon Fitch with one punch – a 12-second stoppage. And though his Saturday win took four times as long, it came against an opponent in Kampmann who had only been truly stopped twice in 25 pro fights.

And it came on a much bigger stage with much more at stake than his win over Fitch. Though talk has been of a potential fight between welterweight champ Georges St-Pierre and Anderson Silva, the Hendricks-Kampmann winner was thought to be next in line for a shot at the belt. And Hendricks answered that call, then slammed the receiver straight down.

“It feels great,” Hendricks said. “Martin’s a tough dude – I’ve trained with him before, and I knew he had a chance to beat me. I had to prove I’m the No. 1 contender. But please, please give me a shot at the belt. Please give me a shot at that thing.”

Hendricks (14-1 MMA, 9-1 UFC) now has won five straight since the only loss of his career – a unanimous decision setback against Rick Story at the TUF 12 Finale nearly two years ago. Kampmann (20-6 MMA, 11-5 UFC) had a three-fight win streak snapped. His most recent loss came at the hands of Diego Sanchez in a fight many thought he had won.

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